This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9 billion project to build the Barclays Center arena and 16 high-rise buildings at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake in 15 towers. New York State still calls it Atlantic Yards. Contact: AtlanticYardsReport[at]hotmail.com

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

As I've written, the Metro section of the New York Times, whose staffers have apparently seen a memo regarding "factual pitfalls" in coverage of the Atlantic Yards project, describes the location of the proposed development as "near downtown Brooklyn."

The Sports section, however, has misdescribed it as "downtown Brooklyn," and the error recurred today, in the Arts section. An article headlined Los Angeles With a Downtown? Gehry's Vision contained this passage:In complexity, he said, the multiuse project resembles the proposed Atlantic Yards development he is designing for downtown Brooklyn, which includes a corridor of high-rise towers and a new arena for the Nets basketball team.

This error is most likely attributable to balkanization. Given that the Metro section has changed the description without printing a correction, it's time for a printed correction to remind all staffers to be consistent.